BLU is the U.S based smartphone brand known for launching the smartphones with affordable price tag. Earlier the company had launched few smartphones like BLU Pure XL & BLU Life Pure XL which are the rebranded Gionee Elife E8 & Elife E7. Now the company launched the popular Marathon M5 Plus as the BLU Energy XL in the U.S. It is priced at $299 (approx Rs. 20,150) and is available through Amazon; the same device was selling in India at a price of Rs. 26,999.

The device sports a large 6-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution along with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It is powered by MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz coupled with Mali T720 GPU and 3GB of RAM. It includes 64GB of internal storage and also includes MicroSD card slot for storage expansion upto additional 64GB. It runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and comes with pre-installed Amazon apps.

The USP of the device is its massive 5,000mAh non-removable battery that is mentioned to deliver 72 hours of standard usage and lasts more than a month on standby. With such a large battery, the device also comes with a fast charging adapter that offers 9V/2A power output. According to the company, the device can be charged from 0% to 15% in just 10 minutes while it can be charged upto 43% in 30 minutes.

It sports a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and PDAF for fast focusing. On the front is a 5MP sensor for capturing selfies. On the front is a physical home button integrated with the fingerprint sensor. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and a USB Type-C 2.0 port. It is available only in Silver and Gold color options. The device measures 160.9 x 81.2 x 8.4 mm and weighs almost 208 grams.

Recently, BLU also launched the R1HD entry-level smartphone for just $100. While the user who can bear with Amazon ads on the lock screen can get the same device for just $50. The Ads will be placed only on the lock screen where the users can just swipe to sides to dismiss them. While the Energy XL runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop, the R1 HD come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. Stay tuned for more updates!